1. Field
This disclosure relates to input devices, and more particularly to a capacitive sensor of an input device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several kinds of input devices exist for performing operations in a computing device. Some examples of input devices include buttons, switches, keyboards, mice, trackballs, touch pads, joy sticks, touch screens and the like. Some examples of computing devices include personal computers, media players, remote controls, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, etc. Operations performed by the input devices generally may include, for example, moving a cursor to select items displayed on a display screen of the computing devices or browsing through a list of audio files to select an audio file for play.
As computing devices evolve, they tend to decrease in size while providing increased features. In light of this, designing input devices for these computing devices can present unique issues.
For example, a touch screen input device that includes an array of capacitive electrodes arranged within a conductive range with an object touching the screen. As the size of the portable computing device decreasing, the space available for the placement of the electrodes typically decreases. For example, as the circuit components are packed more tightly together, it is often needed to utilize all space available on a circuit board. Thus, the conventional placement of the electrodes within a single layer may be problematic where an area of the layer needs to be used for other device modules, e.g., a video processor or sound card, or where the layer physically interferes with other components of the device such as, for example, an input receptacle. Accordingly, the design of input devices for such devices can be constrained by efforts to conserve a limited amount of space.